The invention relates to a device for the manufacture of natural looking model railway tracks and of the type incorporating a plurality of retainer members with means for retaining two track rails in mutually spaced apart positions, and at least one flexible, elongated interconnecting member adapted to interconnect said retainer members.
Such devices are used for building model railway tracks when it is desired to make an individual choice of the curve of the track, in contrast to what is possible with fixed fixtures available in the market, by means of which it is possible to build tracks of predetermined curvature only At such devices the rails are located in the retainer members, whereupon said interconnecting member, preferably manually, is given the curvature desired for the track in question. The interconnecting said retainer members are mutually locked in this position, wherupon crosstie members are glued to the rails which are thus bent to desired shape. When the glue joints have become dry the thus completed and individually curved track is made loose and removed from the device.
German DOS No. 28 03 268 describes such a device, the retainer members of which are two-part elements, which with screw joints are screwed together thus that the rod-shaped interconnecting members, which have considerably bigger height than width, are clamped between the two parts of the retainer member. One of the parts has seats for the track rails, which are clamped thereto by means of especial screw-operated clamping jaws.
The device according to this publication is a good aid for the building of model railway tracks, which are optionally curved in one plane, even if the device comprises several parts and has rather a complex design, whereby it is difficult to use and also expensive. The design furthermore means that it in practice is impossible to make bends of the track other than sideways, whereby it is possible to make conventionally curved tracks only. It is however a desire to build as natural looking model railway tracks as possible, whereby it is required that the tracks can be bent also in other planes, whereby natural upward slopes, bankings and the like can be made separately as well as in combination with other bendings.
This can not be achieved with the device according to the German publication or with other known earlier devices of this kind, as these can be bent in one plane only if they shall maintain their function. The building of models must therfore with aid of the earlier devices be adapted to landscape models with tracks in one plane in contrast to natural conditions where several different planes of curvature can occur.